Style

Our $1 Million Anniversary

This week marks our fourth anniversary as Vanity Fair’s weekly online car column. That means that those of you keyed in enough to start following us in July 2008 have read more than 200 of these entries. Congratulations on your perseverance and masochism!

The fourth anniversary is a weird one, as, according to traditional guidelines, the proper gift to give is flowers, and nothing is more pathetic than buying oneself flowers. (This is decidedly not the case for the traditional gift suggestions for the third and fifth anniversaries: wood and leather, respectively.) But we aren’t exactly traditional. So, instead of purchasing a blooming bouquet that will wilt and die, reminding us only of our own mortality, we decided to treat ourselves to some extended experiences—in a trio of recherché, ultra-luxury vehicles. Each of these feats of automotive ostentation is priced north of the $300,000 mark, for a total value that well exceeds the $1 million mark. Happy birthday to us!

Bentley Mulsanne

The Mulsanne is Bentley’s flagship executive sedan, and as such, it’s as long and luxurious as summer in the Côte d’Azur, sports more wood than an Ent Moot, and is lined with enough leather to keep Judas Priest hide-bound until at least 2017. It is also, like many things, best enjoyed from the rear. Fortunately, when ours arrived, it came equipped with a chauffeur—so as soon as we settled our impeccable backside into the impeccable backseats, we shot up to the Condé Nast building, nabbed our editors, and shared our nouveaux riches by ferrying them up to an alfresco luncheon at a riverfront spot we know an hour north of New York City. The side and rear privacy shades provided much wanted security from the scrutiny of the nonexistent paparazzi. The $7,500 Naim audio system provided an ideally ear-splitting soundtrack. And the professional driver provided expert not-crashing-and-dying on the ride back to the city after we consumed one bottle of champagne and two of rosé. Grand touring indeed. ($344,950 as equipped, rosé not included.)